From what I was told Mr. Amano uses mats under his tanks. That is what saved his tanks from the earthquake that hit Japan. I was told the entire building shook but no tanks broke let alone cracked. What saved the tanks from cracking and breaking, the mats. Now there was a lot of water that spilled from the tanks but the tanks themselves were alright.

From what I was told Mr. Amano uses mats under his tanks. That is what saved his tanks from the earthquake that hit Japan. I was told the entire building shook but no tanks broke let alone cracked. What saved the tanks from cracking and breaking, the mats. Now there was a lot of water that spilled from the tanks but the tanks themselves were alright.

Dan

wow
and he has some serious tanks that could break spewing thousands of gallons of water.. i'd hate to clean that mess up

So exactly how does a thin layer of elastic rubber. Or whatever save a tank from an earthquake magnitude of like 7 was it?

I don't think his showroom was near the epicenter of the earthquake. Though I'd be worried if the tanks had gone through that stress.

Here is a map of where the epicenter is, and Niigata is where ADA is headquartered, there is a good 250 miles between the two points:

I have a foam mat under my 17G 60-P as well, just a peace of mind.

It wouldn't be hard to put the mat under your tank now, just drain most of the water, have someone (or you) lift it up, someone else slid the mat underneath, put the tank back down, cut the mat following the tank edge.

When you ask this question, you also question why you don't get a headache when you walk for more than 15 feet. It's called shock absorption.

Jeez. Way to come on a little strong. Seeing that you know all about shock absorption, could you explain to me how a mat maybe 2-3mm in thickness can prevent a glass filled box with a few hundred pounds of water from having even the slightest crack?

Oh wasnt meaning to come on strong, sorry if it seemed that way. That's the problem with non verbal communication, too much is lost. It prevents the glass from cracking because it evenly distributes the downward pressure of the aquarium and it's contents onto the stand, instead of having pressure points. Imagine those matress commercials that show pressure points on the back, it's quite a bit like that. Now when you have localized pressure points plus harmonic motion like an earthquake or even a person walking by without a care (fairly unlikely), the glass can break. That little bit of foam distributes the shock of harmonic energy throughout the bottom of the tank, instead of to specific pressure points creaded by surface imperfections in both the aquarium glass and the stand top.

I mentioned the walking thing because it's the same principle, though walking is much larger scale because there are quite a number of shock absorbtion systems built into our body, incluting the arch of your foot, bent knees, discs in your back, your glutes, calf muscles, to name a few. But the brain and optic nerve are quite a lot more sensitive than some aquarium glass This came to mind because i remember a guy who had several vertebra in his back fused and started having problems with headaches, and noticed pronounced vibration in his vision when he stepped. That would suck!

Easy there sparky, I'm just the messenger. According to what I was told the building shook, swayed, moved when it should have been stationary. Secondly, I was also told that Mr. Amano uses some sort of cork board but it's not exactly cork it is made of a wood found in Japan that absorbed the shock preventing the tanks from cracking, similar to the mats but firmer and thicker.

Now do the mats relieve stress from the tank, of course it does. It also serves as a buffer if you will between the vibrating equipment like filters and such from transferring to the tank. It's like a sound dampening mat. It absorbs sound, vibrations from getting to the tank and relieves pressure points as well.

Have you ever worked with Dynomat or other sound dampening systems before? If you have same principle.

From what I was told Mr. Amano uses mats under his tanks. That is what saved his tanks from the earthquake that hit Japan. I was told the entire building shook but no tanks broke let alone cracked. What saved the tanks from cracking and breaking, the mats. Now there was a lot of water that spilled from the tanks but the tanks themselves were alright.

The most important thing that saved the tanks from breaking was the fact that the tanks were properly installed so as not to crash to the floor in case of an earthquake. The biggest concern one should have about possible earthquakes is that the typical aquarium on a typical stand is a system with a high center of gravity. Such setup, unless properly secured, will tip over even at significantly smaller earthquake than the one that hit Japan. In other words the whole thing will just tip over and crash to the floor. No mat will ever make any difference in such situation.

Of course, there's no way to absolutely prevent this from happening in a sufficiently strong earthquake. However, once the reasonable measures have been taken to ensure the vertical stability of the tank/stand combination, one can start thinking about mats. How important the mat itself is in such situation will depend on many factors.

I'd say that the main purpose of the mat is the prevention/reduction of continuous everyday static stresses on tank structure from surface imperfections, not protection against earthquakes.

The most important thing that saved the tanks from breaking was the fact that the fact that the tanks were properly installed so as not to crash to the floor in case of an earthquake. The biggest concern one should have about possible earthquakes is that the typical aquarium on a typical stand is a system with a high center of gravity. Such setup, unless properly secured, will tip over even at significantly smaller earthquake than the one that hit Japan. In other words the whole thing will just tip over and crash to the floor. No mat will ever make any difference in such situation.

Of course, there's no way to absolutely prevent this from happening in a sufficiently strong earthquake. However, once the reasonable measures have been taken to ensure the vertical stability of the tank/stand combination, one can start thinking about mats. How important the mat itself is in such situation will depend on may factors.

I'd say that the main purpose of the mat is the prevention/reduction of continuous everyday static stresses on tank structure from surface imperfections, not protection against earthquakes.

Agreed. As said above, "Now do the mats relieve stress from the tank, of course it does. It also serves as a buffer if you will between the vibrating equipment like filters and such from transferring to the tank. It's like a sound dampening mat. It absorbs sound, vibrations from getting to the tank and relieves pressure points as well".

Also the stand on which it sits upon makes a world of difference. One doesn't need an earthquake or vibrations to bring a tank crashing down that's sitting on a crappy stand.

I think Hollywood has tricked many of us when it comes to earthquakes.. If you aren't at the center, you basically get a bunch of rocking. A tank in decent condition can take some uneven pressure like that for short durations no problem. Now the issue is when a tank isn't level and is subjected to continued stress over the course of months and years. That's when you get failures.

Has anyone tried a cork sheet? It is pretty much water proof, a little spongy and thin.

We are using these various mats are a gasket material so almost all traditional gasket materials will work.

Currently, I'm using a yoga mat, the black foam used under floating laminate flooring, and a pc of top end hypo-alergenic carpet pad under glass & acrylic tanks.

Shock absorption has some value, but the leveling effect IMHO is much more important. When I do a 50% W/C I hear the load being taken off the stand by the creaking of the plywood top my 40 gl sits on. Being an Acrylic it will be more forgiving flex then the joints on a glass tank will be.

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